IRIDIUM 1650 Broadway, at 51st St. (212-582-2121)- Nov. 24-28: Stan Getz had a celestial tone on the tenor saxophone, a relentless musical imagina- tion, infallible taste, and a preternatural ease with bossa nova, the Brazilian genre that he was in- strumental in introducing to the States during the early sixties. The pianist Bill Charlap, the tenor player Harry Allen, the vocalist Claudia Acuna, and the Brazilian ensemble Trio de Paz pay him tribute. Mondays belong to the electric-guitar in- novator Les Paul. The Mingus Big Band is now here on Tuesdays. f&v,: '" , " ..., ART MUSEUMS AND LIBRARIES METROPOLITAN MUSEUM Fifth Ave. at 82nd St. (212-879-5500)-When Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II established a cabinet of wonders to display the riches of his court and the New World bounty brought back by his traders, he took as his motto Quanta rari- ora tanta meliora ("The rarer the better"). Thus, mingled in "Princely Splendor: The Dresden Court, I , JU 'r - ''Dress for the Job you want, not the Job you have. " ("The Nutcracker, " at Lincoln Center.) JAZZ GALLERY 290 Hudson St., near Spring St. (212-242-1063)- The trumpeter Brian Lynch stocks his Spheres of Influence band with players who know Latin music as well as they know jazz. On Nov. 27, he beefs up the band to nine players to début new work. Nov. 29: With "Steve Coleman Presents," the iconoclastic saxophonist continues his work- shop series, giving fellow free thinkers space to experiment. JAZZ STANDARD 116 E. 27th St. (212-576-2232)-Nov. 23-24: There's plenty of room for new jazz singers who don't hew to the stick -to-the-standards line. Kate McGarry, filling the early slot, and Rebecca Mar- tin, in the late show, are promising vocalists who perform unfamiliar material. SMOKE 2751 Broadway, between 105th and 106th Sts. (212-864 6662)-Nov. 26-27: The Steve Turre quintet. Whether making his trombone jump through hoops or extracting melodies from an ar- senal of conch shells, Turre is a lusty improviser who's been a welcome presence on the bandstand since his days with Rahsaan Roland Kirk in the mid-seventies. SWEET RHYTHM 88 Seventh Ave. S., at Bleecker St. (212-255- 3626)-Nov. 25-27: The Victor Lewis Group. Watch out! The accomplished drummer com- poser, and bandleader Lewis can summon up hard- bop hurricanes, and his front-line hornmen, the trumpeter Terell Stafford and the saxophonist Sea- mus Blake, are equally powerful. VILLAGE VANGUARD 178 Seventh Ave. S., at 11th St. (212-255-4037)- Through Nov. 28: The alto saxophonist Lou Don- aldson is a dazzling veteran bop player ever ready to tangle with his marvellous organist, Dr. Lonnie Smith. The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra holds sway on Mondays. 36 THE NEW YORKER, NOVEMBER 29, 2004 1580-1620" are a unicorn's horn (courtesy of a detusked narwhal), ostrich eggs, rock-crystal gob- lets, turned ivories, and lavishly embellished arms and armor. Perhaps most wondrous is the porta- ble desk belonging to Elector Johann Georg I of Saxony, which carries in its secret drawers some two hundred and fifty items, lncluding writing implements, toiletries, and tools for gardening and falconry. Through Jan. 30. + Coincident with the Whitney's retrospective, the Met showcases a choice handful of works from its permanent col- lection in "Romare Bearden at the Met." Born in North Carolina and raised in Harlem, Bearden (1911-88) was an unlikely classicist, but his col- lages, prints, and paintings owe as much to the flat, hieratic spaces of Italian Renaissance masters as they do to jazz and the blues. The centerpiece here is the joyous and unsentimental six-panel collage "The Block,' made in 1971-, which pre- sents a slice of a Harlem neighborhood as a vision of earth, heaven, and hell melded. Through March 6.. A wealth of art and artifacts recovered from the tombs of ancient luminaries are on view in "China: Dawn of a Golden Age, 200-750 A.D." The exhibition begins in the waning days of the Han dynasty with items like gold filigree chimeras and a procession of bronze chariots, proceeds through the period when the Xianbei confederation of nomadic tribes carne to power (hammered gold hat ornaments, an iron vessel in the shape of a crouching animal), continues on to the Wei and Sui dynasties (beatific Buddhas, painted screens, and carved stone panels from a sarcophagus), and ends with the early years of the Tang dynasty (nested reliquaries in carved stone and gold, guardian warriors made of gilt bronze). The Silk Road's influence is evident throughout, whether in the form of Roman glass objects that travelled to the region with traders or in the Arabian- and European-style patterns that turn up in textile fragments. Through Jan. 23, + "Gil- bert Stuart," a show of works by the iconic painter of George Washington. Through Jan. 16. . "Wil- liam Kentridge." Works by the South African art- ist, dating from 1989 to 2001. Through Feb. 20. . "The Colonial Andes: Tapestries and Silverwork, 1530-1830." Through Dec. 12. (Open Tuesdays through Sundays, 9:30 to 5 :30, and Friday and Saturday evenings until 9.) MUSEUM OF MODERN ART 11 W 53rd St, (212-708-9400)-The museum has reopened in its renovated and enlarged home and is presenting a series of exhibits related to its metamorphosis. + "Yoshio Taniguchi: Nine Mu- seums" surveys other work by the architect who redesigned the museum. Through Jan. 31. . "Mi- chael Wesely: Open Shutter at the Museum of Modem Art." The German photographer turned his long-exposure method (he has left the shutter open for as long as three years) on MOMA while it was under construction, Through mid-2005. + "Projects 82: Mark Dion-Rescue Archaeology." Dion excavated traces of the former Rockefeller town house from beneath the sculpture garden for this site-specific project. Through March 14. (Open Wednesdays through Mondays, 10:30 to 5:30, and Fridays, 10:30 to 8.) GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM Fifth Ave. at 89th St. (212-423-3500)-"The Aztec Empire" lines the Guggenheim's spiral with more than four hundred artifacts, from carvings depicting harvest work to implements for human sacrifice, Through Feb, 13,. The Guggenheim has the largest collectIon of work by Vasily Kandinsky in the United States, and its curators have decided to de- vote one gallery to his work permanently. "Kandinsky Gallery: An Inaugural Selection" kicks things off. . "Keith Haring: New Wave Aztec." Through Feb. 6. (Open Saturdays through Wednesdays, 10 to 5:45, and Fridays, 10 to 8.) WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART Madison Ave. at 75th St. (212-570-3676)-Born in Los Angeles, raised in Japan, and inspired by expatriate Paris in the nineteen-twenties, Isamu Noguchi (1904-88) was an artist for the dawning global age. Viewers who have ventured to the Noguchi Museum in Queens will not find their assessment transformed by the current survey, "Isamu Noguchi: Master Sculptor." But it does look good. From the room of "puzzle" sculp- tures, biomorphic shapes in wood or stone fitted together without fasteners, to a stand of the fa- mous "Akari" rice-paper lamps, from a terra- cotta portrait bust of the artist's Zen-monk uncle to another, all in chrome, of his friend Buckmin- ster Fuller, the work is openhearted, technically pristine, masterful indeed. Through Jan. l6, + "Bill Viola: Five Angels for the Millennium," a video installation made in 2001. Through March 6. + "James Lee Byars: The Perfect Silence." Drawings, sculptures, and installations by the artist, who died in 1997. Through March 6. . "Small: The Object in Film, Video, and Slide In- stallation." Through Feb. 6. . Jennifer Pastor's "The Perfect Ride." Through Jan. 16. . The city's museums are full of Romare Bearden's work right now, but "The Art of Romare Bearden" is the biggest, most thorough show. Through Jan. 9, + Jacob Lawrence's "War Series." Through Jan, 31. + "Memorials of War." Through Nov, 28, (Open Wednesdays, Thursdays, and weekends, 11 to 6, and Fridays, 1 to 9.) AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY Central Park W at 79th St. (212-769-5100)- "Totems to Turquoise: Native North American ] ewelry Ans of the Northwest and Southwest." Through July 1 O. + "Frogs: A Chorus of Colors" presents some two hundred frogs in glass-walled habitats. Stars include the saucer-size African bull- frogs, who have been wrangling with the frog keep- ers for control of the tongs that are used to feed them frozen mice, and the Chinese gliding frogs, whose toe webbing spreads wide enough to allow them to hang-glide. The exhibition's centerpiece is U) a large vivarium filled with seventy-five dart-poison frogs cameras inside the glass walls can be swiv- elled, zoomed, and focussed with a pair of joy- sticks to get a closer look at the Jewel-bright hop- pers. There's a Webcam, too, for those who want to